New agent, but not getting out on auditions?

Justin B. asked the question "I've got a new agent, but I haven't been out for auditions in six months. Should I start looking for another agent?"

Hey, Justine - thanks for reading my blog. Before you can really make a smart decision about dropping your agent, you'll need to figure out the answers to some questions.

Here, in no particular order are things you have to consider:

Is the reason you aren't getting auditions because of your headshots?

Is it because your agent isn't doing a good job of submitting you? And if he isn't, is it because he's lazy, or doesn't really believe in you? Does he have other clients in your category who have better credits, so they are the ones he's submitting? Or is he submitting you for parts that are not right for you - based on your headshots and credits (or age, ethnicity, etc.)

If you have very few (or no) professional credits, your agent's going to have a hard time getting you in for guest star or major supporting film roles. So is he submitting you for co-star roles that will build up your résumé so that you can eventually be considered for the bigger roles?

As you can see, unless you get answers to some or all of these questions, you run the risk of getting into the same situation if you go to another agency.

If it's been a few months - six at most - and you haven't had an audition through your agent, it's time to schedule a meeting, either on the phone or better yet in person. If they swear they've been submitting you, then discuss the possibility that it's your headshots or credits that are the problem.

As for TV roles, realize that breaking into television is probably the hardest area in which to get a start. That's because they work fairly fast and don't have time to take a chance on someone with very little credits (especially if they have no TV credits). It's a kind of catch 22 - you need TV experience to get TV roles, but you can't get experience unless you have a decent résumé.

The thing is, you can do something about those kinds of problems. Like, get new headshots, or doing student films, videos, online sketches, plays, etc. to build up those credits (and get more experience).

As for whether your agent is actually submitting you, that's harder to figure out. If you're in a theatre company, or around a group of actors in your category, you should ask them if they're getting auditions. This will give you an idea of whether the business is just slow, or your agent is not working very hard for you.

I've been getting a lot of theatrical (TV and film) auditions, but very few commercial ones, so I asked some actor friends who do a lot of commercials (and who are my type), if they were getting out and they said that it's been very slow for them as well. So, that tells me it''s not my agent's fault - it's just slow for character actors my age in commercials.

Just don't let a lot of time go by without talking to your agent. That doesn't mean call them every month, but if I had six months of no auditions, I would be on the phone with my agent asking what was going on.

Hope this helps - let me know how things go if you talk to your agent.

Cheers,

Michael